


Understanding Is A Step Toward Forgiveness

by starrynebula



Category: Andromeda (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:48:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22644409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starrynebula/pseuds/starrynebula
Summary: After his visit to Tarazed, Dylan Hunt has a different persepctive on events of his past. Post "Home Fires"
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Understanding Is A Step Toward Forgiveness

Andromeda was leaving Tarazed without another world ready to sign the Commonwealth Charter. It was disappointing, especially as Tarazed was the one place that the old Commonwealth had survived without being warped. Yes, one of its leaders had been corrupt but that had happened even in the old Commonwealth. It was a chance you took with a democracy - getting a politician that was more interested in power than in ruling fairly. It was why the original founders had settled on a triumvir. Getting three politicians to agree to the same thing was difficult at best, therefore no one leader would gain too much power.

However, it didn’t stop from one leader to cause a huge disruption to society.

Looking down at the picture he still kept of him and Gaheris, Dylan had to admit that Telemachus Rhade had acted according to what he said was important to him - the protection of Tarazed. Perhaps martial law had been a bit extreme but it had been effective. It kept the citizens safe. The Home Guard had protected the remaining government officials from the threat they had been reacting to - namely him.

Though he had accused Telemachus Rhade of betraying him, Dylan realized that wasn’t true. No, Telemachus hadn’t been on his side, but he hadn’t tried to hide that fact. He had been open with his position. He had told him that he felt it was his duty to protect Tarazed.

In the end that is exactly what Telemachus Rhade had done - protected Tarazed. The Home Guard Commander had even been straight forward with him on his thoughts about Ben-Zion’s plan.

_“It’s what I would do._ ”

Cost-Benefit Analysis - looking at something through basic logic. What action reaped the best outcome, not what was right or wrong. That was a Nietzschean way of looking at things. It was what Gaheris Rhade had been trying to get him to understand before the Nietzschean Rebellion at Hephaistos. In his own way, his best friend had been trying to warn him just like Gaheris had said when he had confronted him on the bridge.

And Dylan Hunt had to admit he appreciated the honesty in the statement, even if he didn’t understand or agree with the thought process itself.

It had been that type of Nietzschean thinking that had lead Telemachus Rhade to his conclusions about the Magog attacks. The remote Magog swarm ships introduced the exact threat that Dylan had warned against in his speech. They were his warnings come to life. It was a threat that would be enough to persuade the citizens of Tarazed about the truth to his words.

And enough to convince Telemachus Rhade that the fake Magog attack was his doing.

Not that Telemachus had been the only one making assumptions. Giving the timing, his own prejudices, and the evidence that had been left for them, Dylan had assumed that Telemachus was the one behind the fake Magog ships. The Home Guard Commander had the resources and was in the position to pull something like that off. Dylan had assumed Telemachus planned on using the attack as proof that Dylan had brought the threat with him, and thus strengthen the position of the Isolationists.

They had both been wrong. Ben-Zion had been willing to pin the attacks on an innocent man to get her way. She had expected Dylan to be willing to go along with that plan.

Was he the only one that saw the error in that way of thinking?

As Gaheris had told him on more than one occasion, perhaps he really was too much of an optimist. Gaheris had told him that it was his optimism that blinded him much like Dylan had told him that pessimism wasn’t a survival trait.

Perhaps they were both right in their own way. After all, Gaheris had been right. It had been his optimism that had not allowed him to see what Gaheris had been planning. He had trusted in his friendship with Gaheris despite the veiled warnings Gaheris had been providing him. His friend had been trying to educate him on the belief and thought process of a Nietzschean. Instead of heading the subtle warming, Dylan had simple thought Gaheris was trying to educate a mere human about his people.

Dylan placed the picture back on the shelf.

For the past year he had been struggling with Gaheris’ betrayal. He had been taking it personally. He had seen Gaheris siding against him as an act against him. Dylan saw now that it wasn’t that simple.

Gaheris had told him his reason for siding with the Nietzschean rebellion - the treaty of Antares. For Gaheris, trying to make peace with the Magog was intolerable. The Magog had committed atrocities against countless people, the Nietzscheans included. The Nietzscheans believed in avenging lives that were taken in such a manner.

For Gaheris, this had never been about their friendship. In the grand scheme of things, their friendship was just a drop in a bucket. Gaheris had believed that the Nietzscheans overthrowing the Commonwealth was for the greater good.

As Telemachus had said, as cost benefit ratios go, it had a lot to recommend it.

Dylan had no doubt that his friend would be disappointed in the future that his action had brought about. He would have been disappointed in what the Nietzschean race had become in this future.

“However, I think you would be proud of what your children and their descendants had helped create here on Tarazed, Gaheris,” Dylan said, for the first time feeling something other than anger at the thought of his former best friend. Perhaps in time he would even be able to forgive him, but Dylan knew he wasn’t quite there yet. “And you would be proud of your great-great-great-grandson. I don’t exactly share his point of views but he’s an honorable man,” he added.

“Who are you talking to, Captain?” Andromeda asked.

“Just thinking out loud, Andromeda,” Dylan replied, realizing that he hadn’t initiated privacy mode. “Nothing to concern yourself about.”

“If you say so, Captain,” the AI replied, not sounding entirely convinced.

Dylan turned from the picture of him and his former best friend. The events of the last few days had left him unsettled to say the least. The one thing he was sure of was that he had done the right thing in not shattering the way Gaheris was remembered on Tarazed. Yes, Gaheris had betrayed him and the Commonwealth, but it was one act among a lifetime of other accomplishments. As Telemachus had pointed out, he was the only one alive who knew about that betrayal and Dylan felt that it was best if that betrayal remained in the past. Exposing the truth wouldn’t serve any purpose. It wouldn’t even make him feel better.

The best thing to do was leave history alone, and concentrate on building a brighter future.


End file.
